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	Click to view Braintrove article: Create Shared Rules Written by Gregory Scot Collins Monday, 15 March 2010, 12:41 PM Products: InfoPath and Office Avoid the maintenance nightmare of having multiple controls with the same set of rules with this simple trick that allows you to share rules between controls. Create Shared Rules
	Click to view Braintrove article: Perform a Case-Insensitive String Comparison without Using Translate() Written by Gregory Scot Collins Thursday, 20 August 2009, 7:21 PM Products: InfoPath and Office Hidden in undocumented optional parameters of an extended function, there is a way to perform a case-insensitive string comparison without the need for the translate() function. Perform a Case-Insensitive String Comparison without Using Translate()
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	Click to view Braintrove article: Quickly Crop to a Shadow Written by Gregory Scot Collins Friday, 29 May 2009, 8:55 AM Product: Photoshop Learn how to crop to a shadow perfectly in a few seconds without the need to fuss with zoom and look for slight color variations. Quickly Crop to a Shadow
	Click to view Braintrove article: Sum Repeating Time Values Written by Gregory Scot Collins Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 2:33 PM Products: InfoPath and Office Sum time values in a repeating structure by converting them to seconds, and then display the results as seconds, minutes or hours. Sum Repeating Time Values

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	Click to view Braintrove article: Access a Method in a Master Page with Code-Behind Written by Gregory Scot Collins Friday, 16 June 2006, 7:09 AM Product: ASP.NET Write code for pages with code-behind to access a method in an immediate or parent master page from a content page. Access a Method in a Master Page with Code-Behind
	Click to view Braintrove article: Prevent Namespace Prefixes from Being Copied to the Output Written by Gregory Scot Collins Monday, 1 May 2006, 7:18 AM Products: HTML, JavaScript, XML, XPath and XSLT The extra namespace prefixes required to transform XML are not always desirable on the output. This article describes a technique for excluding specific namespace prefixes from the output. Prevent Namespace Prefixes from Being Copied to the Output
	Click to view Braintrove article: Create Groups in a Drop-Down List Box Written by Gregory Scot Collins Saturday, 17 June 2006, 5:57 AM Products: CSS, FireFox, HTML and Internet Explorer Create grouped option-sets in your drop-down list boxes, each with its own non-selectable header. Create Groups in a Drop-Down List Box
	Click to view Braintrove article: Change the Default Action of the Power Button on the Windows Vista Start Menu Written by Gregory Scot Collins Friday, 8 December 2006, 5:30 AM Product: Windows In Windows Vista, you can change the default action for the power button on the Start menu, as well as for other power events, in the advanced power settings. Change the Default Action of the Power Button on the Windows Vista Start Menu

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	Click to view Braintrove article: Install Windows 7 Beta onto a Virtual Machine Written by Gregory Scot Collins Wednesday, 25 February 2009, 9:52 AM Products: Virtual Server and Windows Walk through the simple process of installing Microsoft Windows 7 Beta onto a virtual machine with screenshots for every step in the process. Install Windows 7 Beta onto a Virtual Machine
	Click to view Braintrove article: Configure Lab Color Mode Defaults for Braintrove Articles Written by Gregory Scot Collins Wednesday, 30 April 2008, 10:36 PM Product: Photoshop Make the appropriate changes in a couple of dialog boxes in order to complete the tasks of Braintrove articles involving the Photohshop Lab Color mode. Configure Lab Color Mode Defaults for Braintrove Articles
	Click to view Braintrove article: Permanently Change the Default Styles for New Word Documents Written by Gregory Scot Collins Wednesday, 18 February 2009, 4:54 PM Products: Office and Word Using this surprisingly simple technique, you can quickly change the way that all newly created Microsoft Word documents look. Permanently Change the Default Styles for New Word Documents
	Click to view Braintrove article: Enable Themes in Windows Server Written by Gregory Scot Collins Monday, 31 March 2008, 3:25 PM Product: Windows Server Consumer versions of Windows have great themes. These themes are available to Windows Server too, but must be enabled before you can enjoy them. Enable Themes in Windows Server
	Click to view Braintrove article: Conditionally Display the Singular or Plural Form of Words Written by Gregory Scot Collins Tuesday, 30 January 2007, 5:33 AM Products: HTML, XML, XPath and XSLT Display the plural forms of words only when necessary can make for a better presentation of your data. Learn two different techniques to conditionally output plurality in your transforms. Conditionally Display the Singular or Plural Form of Words

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Configure IIS 7 for Custom Error Pages

Page 1 of 2

Written by Gregory Scot Collins

Tuesday, 31 July 2007, 9:32 PM

This article has been tested to work with the following products and versions. No guarantee of compatibility, with or without modification, is offered for products or versions other than those listed.

Internet Information Services 7 (Microsoft)

IN THIS ARTICLE:

Many Web sites use custom error pages to maintain site branding when a user encounters an error on that site. Other Web sites use custom error pages to perform URL rewriting—a way of allowing users to navigate the site with non-existent addresses and, behind the scenes, returning valid pages. Whatever they are used for, custom error pages are easy to set up and can be created using any valid page type, including, but not limited to, HTML and ASP.NET pages.

Internet Information Services (IIS) version 6, which shipped as part of Windows Server 2003 and, in a feature-limited version, as part of Windows XP, had custom errors turned on by default and only required specifying the custom page that a particular error code should use. IIS 7, however, is preconfigured to return detailed errors for local requests and custom error pages for remote requests. This change can be confusing to anyone making the transition from an earlier version of IIS to version 7. Without making the proper configuration changes, your attempts to use custom error pages will result in a server error, as shown in Screenshot 1.

Screenshot 1. By default, IIS 7 is set up to return detailed errors.

Create a test custom error page

Use the following steps to test whether you have IIS 7 correctly configured to display custom error pages:

Launch a text editor and copy the following code into it.

<html><body>My custom error page</body></html>

Save the file as custom404.html in your Web folder (typically c:\inetpub\wwwroot).
Launch your web browser.
Navigate to http://localhost/noexist.

If IIS is not correctly configured, you will see an error message like the one shown in Screenshot 1. If it is correctly configured, you will see your custom error page, as shown in Screenshot 4.

CONTINUED: Configure IIS for custom error pages

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	Screenshot 1 - By default, IIS 7 is set up to return detailed errors.
	Screenshot 2 - Configuring IIS 7 to return a custom error page when a 404 error is encountered.
	Screenshot 3 - Configuring IIS 7 to always return custom error pages.
	Screenshot 4 - A custom error pages is returned when a 404 error is encountered.

		See Also
	Click to view Braintrove article: Prevent Users from Seeing ASP.NET Error Pages Written by Gregory Scot Collins Friday, 21 April 2006, 9:46 AM Product: ASP.NET Create a positive user experience by ensuring that those using your ASP.NET applications are redirecting away from errors to a more friendly page. Prevent Users from Seeing ASP.NET Error Pages

		Article Tags
	404 Branding Custom Error Pages Detailed Errors Errors IIS Internet Information Services Local Errors Remote Errors Status Codes URL Rewriting

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